Mayor Loses More Than Tax Rate

If credibility counts for anything, Mayor Turner has suffered another significant setback. With the City Council voting against his proposed tax increase 2-15 yesterday, it sends a clear message to the Mayor about sticking to his word. 

Photo credit: Houston Chronicle

Less than a month ago, Mayor Turner told Governor Abbott, "Because of what you have given today, let me say there will be no need for me to raise the property tax rate, and there will be no need for a public hearing on Monday. There is no reason to activate the emergency provision of the revenue cap that we are operating under. We will continue to operate under the revenue cap without having to exercise the emergency provision." But not really.


In spite of what he said, Mayor Turner chose to propose not lowering the tax rate to meet the requirements of the revenue cap.

The whole tax increase dialogue has been a tad baffling to this student of politics. I keep asking myself a myriad of questions; Is the mayor getting really bad advice somewhere? What happened to the love story mayor we had last year?  Why seek to raise taxes on citizens who have already taken such severe hits on their financial positions when you are already taking in record revenues? 

Those are a few questions I'll probably never get the answers to. But this one thing I do know for sure: Mayor Turner's credibility has suffered. Saying one thing and doing another will have that affect every single time. #tb